The Help Chapter 15 Summary

How It All Goes Down

The next day, Miss Fredericks comes to the Leefolts' house to make Elizabeth take her to lunch. She's mean to Mae Mobley. Aibileen comforts the girl with a story about how black girls and white girls have all the same parts, and are "the same, just a different color" (15.30).

Another day, Hilly invites Elizabeth to bring the kids and Aibileen to the country club. At the country club, Skeeter shows up and asks Hilly why she's been avoiding her, and what exactly she saw in Skeeter's satchel.

Hilly says she saw the pamphlet with the Jim Crow laws. She thinks Skeeter wants to change those laws. Skeeter starts to argue with Hilly, but when she sees the pleading look in Aibileen's eye, she backs off.

She says, "Oh Hilly, it's just a booklet. I found it at the library. I'm not trying to change any laws. I just took it home to read" (15.93).

Hilly gives in to Skeeter. Skeeter and Aibileen make eye contact and Aibileen thinks, "Everybody around us is sunning and laughing […], not a soul guessing that the colored woman and the white woman […] is wondering the same thing: is we fools to feel some relief?" (15.101).